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buildingskills LEARN THE BAS ICS B Y JOHN ROS S Pulling stubborn nails M y second job in construction—after I got through scraping a big stack of foundation formboards—was to remove the nails from a pile of salvaged 2x4s. It didn’t take long for me to discover how easy it is to break a wooden-handled hammer while pulling nails. At the time, I didn’t own two hammers, but my boss did. Before he would let me borrow one of his hammers, he taught me a few tricks. In its nail-pulling function, a hammer works like a lever. I learned that reducing the distance from the nail head to the fulcrum, or pivot point, reduces stress on the hammer. You can do this in a couple of ways just by changing the hammer’s position. Also, a couple of common tools, such as a cat’s paw and a pair of end-cutting nippers, make nail-pulling easier. For pulling finish or siding nails, I like to have a flat bar handy. I can put it under the hammer or nippers and avoid denting the wood. If you spend any time pulling nails, you’ll quickly realize that the rough-textured surface on galvanized nails makes them much harder to pull out. They’re also more likely to bend or break. For these reasons, I use galvanized nails only when I am absolutely sure I won’t have to remove them. John Ross is an assistant editor at Fine Homebuilding. Photos by the author, except where noted. A hammer has more than one lever point Pulling straight back is the hardest way. With a straight-clawed framing hammer, the fulcrum quickly moves to the front of the hammer, the point farthest from the nail (photo above). This is the least-preferred method for removing tough nails. It requires the most effort and puts the most stress on the hammer handle. Placing a block under the head of the hammer will help. It reduces the fulcrum’s distance to the nail and makes it easier to pull out the nail. Levering to the side is easier. Using the side of the hammer’s claw as the fulcrum provides the most leverage. Unfortunately, the nail will be removed a correspondingly short distance. By ree a work. Instead of rockforth, the hammer can be e direction. If the hammer ass by the edge of the wn at left, the nail can be ith one motion. 116 FINE HOMEBUILDING STEP BY STEP